You could try offshore hosting/domain options. Set up a new account out of the USA and transfer your domain there. Then change all your whois hehe, but it's prolly too late for that. Companies are getting more aggressive targeting people using trademarked names, and they are winning those battles in court too. It also depends on whether the site has anything to do with the company or it's products. If it doesn't then maybe you have a chance of arguing that the name is just a coincidence.

If your in the U.K. it is unwise to reverse the process of going for a foreign domain/host whatever... not to say its impossible only risky for your business these guys are searching abroad for a reason...As for fighting those companies for that name their not outside of dirty tactics like calling the tax man on you... be careful

Prepare for the worst. Client of mine in the uk used a domain name for a couple of years that had a word in it that was from a large corporation, not mentioning names but as an example, Apple SEO. When they got a letter from the large corporation their solicitor said it was no problem to fight the case - as long as they had at least £50,000 to cover the legal fees!

Don't get intimidated, take their letter to a lawyer and check if there is any substance behind it. In many cases they will just try to bully you around so you hand them the domains on a silver platter. E-mail means nothing, you need a hard copy in the mail.

You can start with sending them a message that you contacted your lawyer and he can't find anything wrong and see what happens

In response to the 2 people above me, I completly disagree with both statements.
1st poster: Take the example of Mikerowesoft not Microsoft, good intentions doesn't mean they wont go after you, hell even if your name is similar to the company they'll go for you.

To the second poster, just because his business is in the UK it doesn't mean that who ever sent the letter knows that. When someone sends something to my site asking for american copyright info they don't know that I'm Canadian and that there laws are not my own or of my hosting providers.

Unless they have a UK entity you might be okay. It's the same that if I open a company and register it as Microsoft in Equatorial Guinea where Microsoft may not have an entity or presence there. Although it gets complicated and I may even be wrong on that point. The moral of the story is that the laws of 1 country do not apply to another.

Don't get intimidated, take their letter to a lawyer and check if there is any substance behind it. In many cases they will just try to bully you around so you hand them the domains on a silver platter. E-mail means nothing, you need a hard copy in the mail.

You can start with sending them a message that you contacted your lawyer and he can't find anything wrong and see what happens

Well, if you decide to give up before you get an actual letter in the mail - I can take it over for, say, 5 month revenue and hold it for you. Of course I don't know all the details and I don't expect you to reveal them here.

I have a few brand domains I make money with and had been bullied on 2 of them without any follow-up.

Buy a new non copyrighted problem domain, move all content to new domain, 301 redirect all of your url to new domain, example olddomain.com/page1 -> newdomain.com/page1 , then wait until google move all serp to new domain, then if they still want those domain, you are ready to give it to them, you already have all the serp on new domain.

Well, if you decide to give up before you get an actual letter in the mail - I can take it over for, say, 5 month revenue and hold it for you. Of course I don't know all the details and I don't expect you to reveal them here.

I have a few brand domains I make money with and had been bullied on 2 of them without any follow-up.

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This email mentions a $100k possible fine.

They said i have until the 31st october to contact them. If i just ignored them until a letter arrived could i still get the fine? I suppose i could say the email musta went into my junk mail? Not sure if this would wash though.

I have all my whois details showing! , if i woulda hidden this i woulda been clear wouldnt i?

Buy a new non copyrighted problem domain, move all content to new domain, 301 redirect all of your url to new domain, example olddomain.com/page1 -> newdomain.com/page1 , then wait until google move all serp to new domain, then if they still want those domain, you are ready to give it to them, you already have all the serp on new domain.

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can this really be done?

if so this sounds complicated lol. could you possible help me with this process?

If it's not sent by a registered mail - junk it! It won't stand in any court! Just don't answer it! You can always say you were sure it's a spam or phishing e-mail.
It looks like they get percentage (or they may even be pro-active in finding those "infringements" and ask the brand holder for money) from "recovered" (read: stolen) domains. It would be interesting to check what they do with them )

If it's not sent by a registered mail - junk it! It won't stand in any court! Just don't answer it! You can always say you were sure it's a spam or phishing e-mail.
It looks like they get percentage (or they may even be pro-active in finding those "infringements" and ask the brand holder for money) from "recovered" (read: stolen) domains. It would be interesting to check what they do with them )

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That is such bad advice I do not even know what to say.

If the domain is a trademarked name (I assume the OP meant that as opposed to copyrite) the legal ramifications could be pretty ugly.

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